In addition to saving money in a tax favored account, a Self Directed Solo 401k enables you to invest in virtually anything. Unknown to most people, retirement accounts and stock market investments do not have to go hand in hand. While the stock market only represents a small fraction of the investment opportunities out there, the Self Directed Solo 401k taps into those possibilities. Here’s a partial list of potential investments:

Precious Metals

Gold, silver, and platinum coins

Precious metals can offer a secure way to ensure wealth preservation. Gold has been used directly as money for the vast majority of human history. Own the only asset that has been time tested for thousands of years.

Real Estate

Cash purchased or leveraged, residential, commercial, land, options, tenants in common, mortgage notes, trust deeds, domestic or foreign

Owning real assets can be a predictable and understandable way to protect and grow wealth.

Private Companies

Stock in corporations, membership units in LLCs, promissory notes, private placements memorandums, hedge funds, domestic or foreign, revenue participation agreements

Invest in the startup or expansion of private companies… others’ or your own.

Miscellaneous

Foreign bank accounts
While you are probably familiar with holding the U.S. Dollar as a liquid asset in a U.S. bank account, today’s inflationary dollar policies create a strong incentive to hold liquid reserves in foreign banks denominated in a foreign currency that is likely to be more stable than the dollar.

Foreign stock markets
The crash of the American economy doesn’t have to leave you moping around waiting for it to be rebuilt. Take a look at the vibrant economies of other countries. Your Solo 401k can invest directly into stock markets in other countries.

American stock market – Expanded options
With our Self Directed Solo 401k, you can buy and sell options, trade on margin, sell stocks short, and invest in many stocks and funds that are usually unavailable to conventional IRA and 401k accounts.

What is and isn’t allowed

The only specific assets that aren’t allowed are collectibles and precious metal bullion. Rather than list allowable investments, the law names what is disallowed.

In addition to the 2 disallowed investments, “prohibited transactions” are not allowed. These are generally transactions that involve or benefit yourself or your family – outside of taxable distributions from your retirement account.

While there are flawed theories that attempt to convince Joe the Plumber to use the stock market as his sole source of investment opportunities, actual data suggests that across the globe the two leading sources of wealth are real estate and business ownership. Annual wealth reports also often dictate that the wealthy enjoy returns from their private investments far superior to their returns from publicly traded securities.

A winning investment strategy simply insn’t likely with a severely restricted investment platform. With a Self Directed Solo 401k, you can enjoy unlimited possibilities.